| Fran Vázquez: Where Does He Come From And What Has He Done? Authored by Davor Nincic - June 29, 2005 - 1:32 am
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As already mentioned, Vázquez's Unicaja Malaga finished the season with a 23-11 record, behind powerhouses Tau Baskonia, Barcelone, and Real Madrid. Unicaja, a 4th seed in the playoffs, managed to beat out the 5th seed, Etosa Alicante, in an epic first round series. Unicaja came back to win the series from an 0-2 deficit, which was first such occurrence in league history.
Their victory set up a semifinal matchup against Tau Baskonia, the 1st seed. This series provided a glimpse of what could be future matchups in the NBA, pairing up Vázquez against what many believe to be the 1st overall pick next year, Tiago Splitter. As my esteemed colleague Luis Fernández so brilliantly chronicled in a four part series at draftcity.com/draftexpress.com, Vázquez more than held his own against Splitter despite his team's series loss.
Vázquez, as many other young players in Europe before him, didn't get much attention in his team's offensive sets, often settling for being a 4th or 5th option. This isn't surprising considering the caliber of players that were his teammates during this past season. Players Vázquez shared floor time include:
-Trajan Langdon -- a former lottery pick out of Duke who has managed to find a niche overseas
-JR Bremer -- Celtics' starting PG during their run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2003
-Walter Herrmann -- a member of Argentina's Gold medal winning team at the Olympics, he has been linked to several rumors regarding an NBA position
-Pepe Sanchez -- also a member of Argentina's Gold medal winning team in Athens, 2004
-Kris Lang -- former Tarheel, and a member of the Washington Wizards at one point
-Zan Tabak -- the player Vázquez was originally supposed to backup, Tabak is a 7 year NBA veteran
Vázquez finished the ACB season averaging 11ppg, 6rpg, and 1.38bpg, which ranked him first in the league. Especially surprising is his high FG%, which stood at 62%.
For comparison, Pau Gasol's last year in Spain ended with almost identical statistics: 11ppg and 5rpg.
Vázquez grew up with CB Xantada farm system, going through all of their youth categories, before signing with Unicaja in 2001. He spent two seasons there, before going to Gran Canaria for a year (2003/04). This is where his [so far] only established connection with the Magic comes up: Vázquez was originally brought up to back up former Magic player, Pat Burke. He later took over the starting position after a Burke injury.
Fran Vázquez has a vast experience playing in the Euroleague, Europe's top competition which pits national champions (and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams of certain "stronger" leagues) against one another. Vázquez played 29 games over the course of 3 seasons, most recently averaging 9ppg and 5rpg.
That most recent season in Euroleague seems to have been marred in inconsistency. Out of fourteen games played, he ended up with double digit scoring in seven of them, while he never broke 6 points in the other seven. Double digit games would almost exclusively be followed by games one could categorize as "not so hot."
Out of those fourteen games played, the one that stands out the most is the December 8th, 2004 game against CSKA Moscow. Many believed CSKA to be the best team in all of Europe, and they stood as clear favorites to win the Euroleague (they later lost in the Final Four). Vázquez dominated the game, scoring 17 points, grabbing 11 boards, and blocking 3 shots. A euroleague.net game recap reporter called him "unstoppable at both ends of the floor."
Fran Vázquez will be a member of the Spanish National Team at this year's Eurobasket in Serbia, where he's expected to team up with Pau Gasol to make up Spain's frontcourt. This raises the number of Orlando Magic players expected to play there to three, alongside Hedo Turkoglu and Mario Kasun.
Fran Vázquez can certainly be viewed as somewhat of a disappointing pick, considering the players that were still on board (some unexpectedly) when it was Orlando's turn to chose. Having said that, the Magic brass wouldn't be making this pick if they weren't sure he was a rotational player for this team, one that could eat up minutes up front. I think his credentials certainly back that line of thinking up. |
